BBC Four is always the channel to watch and never more so than on Friday 14th October 2016. That’s the transmission of The Story of Skinhead with Don Letts.

It is a one-hour documentary and according to the publicity:

A documentary in which director and DJ Don Letts looks at a very particular and very provocative British subculture – skinhead. He explores how skinhead has become associated with street fighting, trouble on the football terraces and violent racism in the public consciousness in Britain and around the world, but reveals that its origins lie in a cultural coming together that could not be further from its tarnished image.

Don shows in fascinating detail how the roots of skinhead are in a brilliant cultural collision between the young white working-class kids and their Jamaican counterparts in British inner cities, a moment of multicultural harmony.

He traces the history of skinhead from the late 60s to the present, looking at the music and styles of skinhead from the reggae-influenced ska to the punk-influenced Oi.

Throughout Don meets people who were committed members of various skinhead scenes, and he considers the conflicts and the contradictions that skinhead has attracted over five decades.

Sounds a winner, even if an hour is optimistic to cover the whole scene. Friday 14th October 2016 at 9pm, with catch-up later via the BBC Four website.